Bob Coleman talks about conservation concepts used in a Chula Vista demonstration home. The final tour of the home will be June 26. Sandy Huffaker

CHULA VISTA  Now is the time for Chula Vista homeowners to take advantage of what remains of a federal grant that can help them pay for home energy upgrades.

The city of Chula Vista in 2009 received a three-year grant from the federal government to promote upgrades that would make homes more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The funds for the city’s Home Upgrade, Carbon Downgrade program expire this summer, said Chula Vista Environmental Resources Manager Brendan Reed.

The program contained three primary components:

• A rebate program with local appliance stores for high-efficiency appliances.

• A local home retrofit incentive to nearly match state incentives provided by Energy Upgrade California.

• Zero-interest revolving loans for homeowners who still couldn’t afford to pay for energy upgrades even with the incentive.

The city has given out more than 2,500 appliance rebates, provided retrofit incentives for 213 homes and loaned money to 11 homeowners seeking upgrades. Although the rebate program and the loan program are tapped out, Reed said, limited grant money remains for the retrofit incentive.

“This is the best opportunity to get the most incentive amount,” he said. “This is the time. We’re coming to the end. This is it. The program, regardless of how much money we have left, will be ending this summer.”

To push home energy upgrades, the city collaborated with Community HousingWorks to purchase an average home in Chula Vista, before partnering with Consol and San Diego Gas & Electric to lead a team in giving it an energy overhaul. Residents were then invited to periodic open houses at the showcase home, so they could see up close some of the options for improving home energy use.

Saturday was one of the last opportunities for residents to tour it before it is sold. The final viewing is scheduled for June 26.

The home showcases everything from solar panels and a high-efficiency heating system to insulation, air, attic and duct sealing. It also features double-paned windows, Energy Star-qualified appliances and LED lighting throughout, along with a couple of surprises: bamboo flooring and recycled glass countertops.

“A lot of folks played a role in the home, and the idea was to really make home energy upgrades visible and tangible and give an opportunity for residents to kick the tires,” Reed said. “It’s hard to imagine some of these things until you’re in the home, see the different technologies and then it’s a little more translatable to that person’s home.”

The showcase house has proved a great marketing tool, said Bob Coleman, associate program manager of Better Buildings for the California Center for Sustainable Energy. His organization has taken leadership of leading tours and informing visitors about the various resources available to them for their own home energy assessments and upgrades.

“This particular house was done in a way that is reasonable and affordable for most people to do, as far as the energy efficiency side of it,” Coleman said. “Generally somebody doesn’t live in a house and do everything at once. People of normal means don’t have the kind of resources to do that. This is a good demonstration of what people with typical means could do, progressively of course.”